Saturday, February 28, 2009

Anna loves Fancy Nancy...but Anna's mom loves Fancy Nancy even more! When we were deciding what to do for her 4th birthday party, Fancy Nancy was a shoe-in.

Seriously, if you have not read the Fancy Nancy books, you are missing out! Even if you don't have a little girl, you should check them out. They are way too cute!

So I thought I would share a few pictures from our soiree. The best part was making our house fancy. It was positively dripping with feathers, garlands, glitter, jewelry, flowers, and pink and purple everything! Luckily my mom was in town for the party and she helped me decorate, but somehow she managed to aviod being in a single picture!

Here is the table. Fancy, isn't it?

And here is the cake. I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.

Our first game was "Fancy or Plain" where I held up an ordinary object and a fancy object, and they had to pick the fancy one. They were VERY good at this! In this picture you can also see me in all my fanciness!

For playing the game so well they all get boas.

This is the only picture with all of the girls in their boas. They thought they were a little itchy. They sure look pretty though!

Our next game was freeze dance.

After that game they got shades.

Noah wasn't really into the freeze dance (the girly party freaked him out a little) but he was really sweet with Adeline and let her wear his shades.

Then we tried to walk with books on our heads. Fancy princesses can do this, but we discovered it is very hard to do with tiaras and fancy hair do's. Speaking of fancy hair do's...Carly's mom, Alissa, did Anna's hair for the party. She thought she was the queen of the world when she left for her hair appointment. It looked beautiful (and very fancy). Thanks Alissa!

Then we got bracelets.

I think putting on makeup was their favorite part. We did eye shadow, blush, and body glitter. Thanks, Bethany for helping with the makeup. (She's the one in the top hat!)

On to the Fancy Nancy Pull string pinata that was filled with rings and mini tiaras.

Here is Anna showing off her rings (or is she throwing gang signs?)

Snack break!

Opening presents...Bryn gave her this great Fancy Nancy game!

They're adorable...but the sun is in their eyes.

Here is the whole crew. Could they be any cuter?!?!

This is the Anna I know and love. Can you tell that her mom has killed herself to throw her the best Fancy Nancy party a 4 year old could ask for?

Finally smiling.

The kids did a great job drinking from the fancy goblets. I think they liked having a base they could wrap their little hands around. This is Allison.

Thinking hard about that wish!

Anna and Abby playing with the new toys.

Luke was hilarious! He left his shades and coat on the ENTIRE party. The girly party didn't bother him a bit!

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Well...it has been two months since I have even looked at a blog. I got on here today and realized that I still have my Christmas background up! Pitiful!

I've decided to get back in the habit, though I don’t know if anyone follows my blog anymore, after I dropped of the face of the earth for a while.

I have debated whether or not I should post this...and I have decided to go for it. I am going to tell you all how I spent my weekend. Many of you will think I'm a complete dork, and some of you will be totally jealous. So here goes...I was at a Twilight Tour...Twilight Party...Twilight Event...OK...it was a Twilight Convention. Do you see why I am trying to avoid the "C" word? Now you think I'm some kind of "vampire trekkie".

I suppose I am.

A few months ago my sister, Lindsey, asked me to go to San Francisco for a Twilight Convention. Yeah right, Aaron would never go for that. So I asked him, and he said “sure!” So we bought tickets. My sister is really into celebrities and movie memorabilia and that sort of thing. I’m really not, but I thought a weekend in San Fran doing all things Twilight sounded like fun. And it certainly was!

The stars we got to see were:

Peter Facinelli (Carlisle)

I have to say…Peter is the most adorable thing I’ve ever seen (besides my husband of course!)

Billy Burke (Charlie)

Kellan Lutz (Emmett)

Michael Welsh (Mike Newton)

Christian Sarratos (Angela)

Jackson Rathbone (Jasper)

Ashley Green (Alice)

Rachelle Lefevre (Victoria)

They all answered questions on stage and we got autographs from all of them. We had time to chat a little bit with all of them. I was amazed at how nice they all were (well, Billy wasn’t very into it…he hasn’t even read the books). Everybody else was great. The funniest part was how they all made fun of Robert Pattinson’s athletic ability. Apparently he’s not an athlete!

They talked a lot about filming Twilight, and also said some neat things about New Moon. Although a lot of people asked really lame questions. Seriously…”if you had three wishes, what would they be?” and stuff like that.

There was also a concert by the 100 Monkeys, which is Jackson Rathbone’s band.

They were actually pretty good. I was in the front row being squished up against the stage. I couldn’t move, but I was screaming right along with everybody else. I felt 17…in a good way.

The Vampire Ball was tons of fun also. I wore a red and black dress with a black boa and bright red lipstick. We danced until almost 2 am. There was a centerpiece competition. We didn’t win, but ours were the best!

Here are a few pictures of the costume competition. Again, we didn’t win, but we looked the best. The winner was a giant cardboard recreation of the cover of Breaking Dawn. She was supposed to be the chess piece coming out of the book, but she looked like a ghost poking out of a refrigerator box. I really wish I had taken a picture. I was Bella and my Lindsey was Alice. We were both able to get our hands on the actual dresses worn in the movie. Mine will be for sale on ebay if anyone is interested!

Those of you who know me, know that I LOVE costumes. Almost as much as I love parties! So putting together every detail of Bella’s outfit was a blast for me.

We also went to a breakfast with some of the celebs, watched parodies performed, and attended discussions of every aspect of Twilight: the music, the gossip, New Moon news, etc.This is The Hillywoods. They did one of the parodies and it was pretty good.

We also did LOTS of shopping! They had a three story Forever 21, a three story Ross, a mall, and a Nordstrom Rack…all within walking distance! That was heaven. And a Jamba Juice…yum! I love Arkansas, but we do lack some critical things!

I really, really enjoyed the city.

Our hotel was right in the middle of downtown and we could walk to everything. I loved it! The weather was great too. It was high 50’s in the evening. I was very comfortable in short sleeves and jeans. I had to laugh at the Californians. No joke…everyone was wearing heavy coats, hats and scarves! I got a feel for what my Utah friends think of Arkansans.

There were lots of interesting people. We saw a guy stroking his giant rat, a guy peeing on the street, and lots of homeless people with really interesting signs. One said he needed money for a hooker, another said he was “to stooped to wurk”. Very creative.

Our flight home had a three hour layover in Phoenix.

Yep, the exact place that Bella escapes from Alice and Jasper in Twilight. So we decided to try to find the bathroom with two entrances that is described in the book. We didn’t find it, but I think we set some kind of record for “most people thinking your nuts in one day”. When I got home, I did a little research and discovered that the bathroom doesn’t exist. Apparently there is a bathroom like that in a Phoenix movie theater that gave Stephenie Meyer the idea. Oh well! We took a picture of a Phoenix Airport bathroom anyway!

Overall the weekend was fantastic. Luckily, the average age of attendees was 20’s. There were some much older and much younger, but we fit in perfectly. There were lots of moms with their daughters and it made me really excited to take my girls to something like this one day. That has to make you the coolest mom in the world!

Aaron and Aubrey recently celebrated 12 wonderful years together! We have four amazing children. Aiden is 11, Abbott is 9, Anna is 6, and Adeline is 3. We are so blessed. Our house is a crazy circus, and I wouldn't have it any other way!